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Comment by poincaredisk | Hacker News Reader

>This is an area where government regulation is actually required, all transaction fees should be disclosed and charged as a surcharge on the base purchase price, whether it's a credit card or BNPL

Btw. in Europe the card thing was solved differently. First, most people use debit cards, not credit cards. Second, card fees are capped at 0.2% which makes it actually a cost saving measure (cash processing is not free).

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People use debit card in the USA as well

The difference is that in the States a cash discount is only rarely offered. It’s common in some areas (gasoline often costs less when you pay with debit, contractors and other similar small businesses will usually pass that 3% on to the consumer as well) but not others. Much more common is that the business charges the same for both (basically every direct to consumer retailer charges same for both debit and credit).

The indirect result is that people with debit cards and cash payers are actually indirectly subsidizing credit card holders in the States. You’re actually operating at a disadvantage if you don’t funnel most of your spend through a credit card in the States

Let's start by not calling it a "cash discount", since it's a misnomer. The real term is "card processing fee" (and lack thereof).

And yes, it would sure be nice to mandate explicit card fees for all uses. That would make debit cards that much more attractive.

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